Why does this business exist? Because small banks have a problem: if they're not publicly listed, they have issued stock to raise capital but that stock is largely illiquid, and so buyers/sellers come to the bank and ask them what they should do.
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The bank urgently does not want to be in the business of answering that question, because answering that question is a regulatory minefield in a business that has to be very, very careful of regulatory minefields.
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Thus BancList (spelling absolutely intentional, because even the K is regulated and I am absolutely not joking about that fact). Their answer is "Train all your employees that if anyone asks about your bank stock you point them to BancList and we handle everything else."
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So is BancList a stock exchange? No. BancList doesn't do the heavy lifting or interface with broker dealers, clearing, settlement, etc. BancList is CraigsList for small bank stocks. You say "Hey I have 1,200 shares of Foo and want to sell at $7 each." The let people DM you.
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You and the person you're DMing with conclude the transaction off-platform, presumably involving lawyers, (other) banks, and the transfer agent (the party that keeps the blockchain ^H^H^H^H^H excel file which lists who owns the bank).
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And who pays for it all? The banks, on a subscription fee, because "Never have your employees burn company time to get you into a regulatory incident AND ALSO give your shareholders liquidity" is so darn useful. (SWAG guess: probably 5 to 6 figures a year, enterprise pricing.)
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There's some ancillary complexity from letting the bank approve listings/transactions and display their investor disclosures inline, but if you were to model this as "A CRUD app you could write in 2~4 weeks" I think you'd be substantially right. A beautiful, beautiful business.
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So they went knocking on doors & signing up the banks? Or is it a consortia of banks in the background being fronted by 3rd party
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I imagine there was very little knocking on doors; founding team just called up everyone in their Rolodex, and after that point it's viral since the population of people who want to buy or sell one of 100 local banks definitely are interested in the 101st.
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In what I’m sure is another reason small banks like them. Like small banks, the company’s website does not render well on mobile web view in the Twitter app.pic.twitter.com/snQT9P0a9Q
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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